The MGC returns? C15+2 - A short chapter, but one that advances the story.
Johanna and her working party returned to the Guild that evening, grimy, happy, and smelling of elephants. Her nose alerted her to the fact one last thing needed to be done, and she diverted the students via the new shower block adjacent to the changing rooms for Games. She had tipped a Guild servant to ensure lots of hot water and towels were available, and made very sure they all ran through their respective showers.
She undressed and showered with her girls: she had lost the shyness and nudity taboo that had made sharing a room such an ordeal when she first arrived in Ankh-Morpork, and as she taught the girls on Wilderness Survival courses, you can be shy or you can be clean, but you cannot be both. I prefer clean.
It's also good for them that they see I have no hang-ups or feelings of guilt or oddity about my body, she thought. Young girls can be neurotic about these things - I certainly was! - and it does them good to be reassured that their bodies are not unique. Besides, there may be times when an Assassin has to be naked to blend in. Johanna frowned. She couldn't think how, not unless she were to be completing a contract in a House of Repute or a naturist colony. And then where would you conceal the inhumation weapon? 1(1)2
Johanna also reflected that nudity was a condition often enforced on those captured by a ruthless enemy, as the first step towards breaking their resistance and to make it harder for them to escape. Better they experience it now, in unforced circumstances.
"When you get up to your dorms, change, end send this clothing to the laundry bag!" she requested. "End clean your boots, otherwise you are not going to be popular"!
After a debriefing session as to the type and location of observers Vetinari would have had watching the student assassins, she sent them off with thanks, and went to change her own clothes.
She then went to find Alice and Joan, to tell them about the discussion she had had with Vetinari concerning Davinia Bellamy.
"Ah, the elephant in the room!" Alice said, cheerfully.
"I'm sorry, I thought I'd bethed end changed clothes…"
"Not a trace, m'dear!" Joan said. "We meant the thing we very carefully weren't talking about the other time. The dear Davinia. You have news?"
Johanna related her conversation with the Patrician and Mr {{Cough}}. The others listened, intently. Joan punched a clenched fist into her other palm, in frustration.
"Isn't it the way!" she exclaimed. "We now know for sure it's the dratted woman, but we have nothing that stands up in court!"
She calmed herself, and smiled.
"However. I have a plan. We need to run it past the Watch and Vetinari's ghastly people, but it may be a way forward."
"We're listening" Alice prompted her.
"It's simple. Look here. She must be bursting to score another notch on her belt by now. If I was anything to go by, sooner or later, probably sooner, our Davinia will give into the urge again even if she's trying to be a good little girl right now. And it occurred to me before I went to sleep last night. Ourselves, the Watch and Vetinari's people are all keeping her under surveillance. So far we've found just enough for us to be sure she's the right person, but nothing that's going to make a case in court. But maybe we're doing this backwards.
"We know that so far, three of the men she's inhumed had Guild contracts out on them. Damn cheek, I'd have fancied a pop at one or two of them myself, you can never have too much money in your retirement fund. Now that leads me to wonder. Elsewhere in this building there is a department that has a whole room full of current contracts and files on the clients. Why don't we locate, say, half a dozen really egregious clients, of the sort Davinia would take an interest in, and watch them instead? We're due some luck in this case, after all! And one of the things this Guild does is the opposite of assassination. We bodyguard for money and we advise on security. It's a long shot, but we might just strike lucky by identifying the clients who we know she would take an interest in. We discreetly watch and observe. As you know, we can do that so damn' well the client doesn't know they're being watched. Any sign of Davinia moving in to conclude a private contract, then we move in, and bang!" Joan punched her open palm again.
"We've got her. In the bag!"
"Combine this with a lower level of monitoring her home and shop…." Mused Alice, "and get more Assassins in on the observation. We might make it a field exercise for older students."
"Will Mr Wimvoe ellow us eccess to the contract files?" Johanna asked. "These things ere restricted-eccess."
"He will if Lord Downey tells him to." Joan decided.
"So we change emphasis from the suspect, to likely victims" mused Alice. "And, forgive me for being cynical, Joan, you get to look closely at the sort of clients who interest you, with a view to boosting your retirement fund?"
"Well, in the fullness of time, somebody's got to get the contract fees!" Joan said, stoutly.
"It might be best, then, if after we've selected our six candidates to watch, we ask the Dark Council to temporarily take them off the list to prevent misunderstanding. Or we could end up chasing a colleague who's legitimately accepted the contract."
"Suspend their contracts, anyway. Downey might raise objections and he'll probably put a time limit on it. Bad for business, otherwise."
"We'll see. It might break the deadlock. When do we approach Downey?" asked Alice.
"After we've spoken to our friends at the Watch to keep them in the loop. There might be advantages here too. If a marked client sees obvious old plods like Colon and Nobbs watching him and complains to the Watch, he won't stop to think who else might be looking his way!"
"One month only." Lord Downey said, flatly. "I don't want people coming to me and complaining as to why we seem to be doing nothing to fulfil a contract they've already made a fifty per cent advance payment on. How long will it take you to identify six likely targets?"
"Two or three days, sir, if we work over the weekend." Alice said, smoothly.
"And the Watch get to know the barest details. I expressly forbid any written material from our archives being passed to them. This is business-sensitive information!"
"Of course, sir. All the Watch will know are names and addresses. Everything else is privileged information."
Downey smiled.
"You'd better get onto it, then. I don't suppose there's any way Doctor Bellamy could have her attention drawn to these individuals? To make it more likely she'll target one or more of them?"
Joan shook her head.
"At the moment, my Lord, there isn't a way we can think of that won't look to her as if we're planting it. The last thing we want is for her to get suspicious."
"If you do come up with a scheme for that, advise me first."
"Very good, sir" Alice and Joan said, with surprising submissiveness.
Dismissed, the ladies went to work.
(1) As mentioned in a previous footnote, the Guild would, a few years later, have a Visiting Lecturer In Agatean Culture and Ninjitsu Studies, who would have eye-watering ideas in this regard. Samurai expert Steven Turnbull relates how a lady Ninja in old Japan would routinely conceal a dagger of last resort in a very intimate place. (2)
(2) In a suitably formed sheath, obviously.
2