|
Tony stared at the woman behind the desk in disbelief and tried to ignore
the smirking of the perp he had by the elbow. "You're telling me that
booking procedures have changed, but you can't tell me what the changes
are," he said. Maybe he'd been mistaken. Maybe he'd misheard.
"Yup," the woman confirmed, bobbing her head. "So how am I supposed to book him?" Tony jerked his chin towards the man he had by the elbow. She just shrugged. Tony sighed and raised his free hand to rub at his forehead. "Listen," he said, smiling his most charming smile, "why don't we just book him with the old procedures and I'll come down tomorrow and redo it with the new procedures?" The charm rolled off her like water off a duck's back. "'Cause the second he got in here he'd call his lawyer and ten minutes later they'd be walking out the door," the booking clerk drawled. "That looks bad for us. Sorry." She didn't sound sorry. She sounded like the living incarnation of bureaucracy--detached, uninterested in individual concerns, and preoccupied with something higher up the bureaucratic food chain. "Well, what am I supposed to do with this idiot in the meantime?" Tony demanded. The woman shrugged impassively. "Great," Tony muttered. He fished around in his pocket for his cell phone. "Gibbs is going to be pissed." "Excuse me," The clerk jumped in suddenly. Tony looked up at her. She didn't look impassive anymore. "Did you say Gibbs?" "Yeah," Tony said. He held up his cell phone so that she could see Gibbs's name highlighted in the phone's directory. "I have to call him to find out what to do with this guy." The clerk blanched. "Let me call my supervisor," she said quickly, picking her desk phone. "I'm sure she'll be able to take care of everything." The number she dialed, Tony noticed, was long distance. Apparently the supervisor had gone away somewhere just as the procedural changes were being implemented. He resisted the urge to snort. Half an hour later the perp was booked and Tony himself was free to go. As he turned away from the desk he couldn't restrain his grin any longer. Sometimes it was good to have the biggest bastard in NCIS for a boss. |