The Truth

do.”
    “Traitor?” whispered Lord de Worde.
    “That is what people would say.”
    Lord de Worde nodded, like a man caught in an unpleasant dream.
    “I could not possibly take the money,” he said. “I wish you joy of it, my son . Because…you are most certainly a de Worde. Good day to you.” He turned and walked away. After a few seconds, the distant door creaked open and shut quietly.
    William staggered to a pillar. He was shaking. He replayed the meeting in his head. His brain hadn’t touched the ground the whole time.
    “Are you okay, Villiam?” said Otto.
    “I feel sick. But…yeah, I’m all right. Of all the boneheaded, stubborn, self-centered, arrogant—”
    “But you make up for it in other vays,” said Otto.
    “I meant my father.”
    “Oh.”
    “He’s just so certain he’s in the right all the time—”
    “Sorry, this is still your father ve’re talking about?”
    “Are you saying I’m like him?”
    “Oh, no. Qvite different. Absolutely qvite different. No similarities votsoever.”
    “You didn’t need to go that far!” He stopped. “Did I say ‘thank you’?”
    “No, you did not.”
    “Oh dear.”
    “No, you noticed that you didn’t, so zat is okay,” said Otto. “Every day, in every vay, ve get better and better. By the vay, vould you mind pulling this sword out of me? Vot kind of idiot just stick it in vampire? All it does is mess up zer linen.”
    “Let me help—” William gingerly withdrew the blade.
    “Can I put zis on my expenses?”
    “Yes, I think so.”
    “Good. And now it is all over and time for rewards and medals,” said the vampire cheerfully, adjusting his jacket. “So vhere are your troubles now?”
    “Just starting,” said William. “I think I’m going to be seeing the inside of the Watch House in less than an hour.”

    In fact it was forty-three minutes later that William de Worde was Helping the Watch, as they say, with Their Inquiries.
    On the other side of the table Commander Vimes was carefully rereading the Times . He was, William knew, taking longer than necessary in order to make him nervous.
    “I can help you with any long words you don’t recognize,” he volunteered.
    “It’s very good,” said Vimes, ignoring this. “But I need to know more. I need to know the names . I think you know the names. Where did they meet? Things like that. I need to know them.”
    “Some things are a mystery to me,” said William. “You’ve got more than enough evidence to release Lord Vetinari.”
    “I want to know more.”
    “Not from me.”
    “Come on Mr. de Worde. We’re on the same side here!”
    “No. We’re just on two different sides that happen to be side by side.”
    “Mr. de Worde, earlier today you assaulted one of my officers. Do you know how much trouble you are in already?”
    “I expected better of you than that, Mr. Vimes,” said William. “Are you saying I assaulted an officer in uniform? An officer who identified themselves to me?”
    “Be careful, Mr. de Worde.”
    “I was being followed by a werewolf, Commander. I took steps to…inconvenience it so that I could get away. Would you like to debate this publicly?”
    I’m being an arrogant, lying, supercilious bastard, thought William. And I’m good at it.
    “Then you give me no choice but to arrest you for concealing—”
    “I demand a lawyer,” said William.
    “Really? And who did you have in mind at this time of night?”
    “Mr. Slant.”
    “ Slant? You think he’ll come out for you? ”
    “No. I know he’ll come out. Believe me.”
    “Oh, he will, will he?”
    “Trust me.”
    “Come now,” said Vimes, smiling. “Do we need this? It’s the duty of every citizen to help the Watch, isn’t it?”
    “I don’t know. I know the Watch think it is. I’ve never seen it written down,” said William. “Then again, I never knew it was the right of the Watch to spy on innocent people.”
    He saw the smile freeze.
    “It was for your own good,” Vimes growled.
    “I didn’t know it was your job to decide what was good for me.”
    This time Vimes won a small prize. “I’m not going to be led, either,” he said. “But I have reason to believe that you are withholding information about a major crime, and that is an offense. That’s against the law.”
    “Mr. Slant will come up with something. There’s some precedent, I’ll bet. He’ll go back hundreds of years. The Patricians have always set great store by precedent. Mr. Slant will dig and