Chapter 8
498 Words
Chapter 8
Lorenzo babbled on about important things. Things Guillermo should probably pay attention to, things he needed to absorb in order to handle this monumental task.
But his mind was elsewhere.
Sweating profusely in that alien costume, he loosened the collar that was choking him.
“Got all that?” Lorenzo asked, studying his expression.
“Not really,” Guillermo sighed.
Lorenzo turned around to the army of advisers that huddled in the room. His eyes met with Joaquin, the master royalty handler. The older man squinted and then clapped once.
“Let’s give the man some room to breathe, shall we?”
The advisers hesitated for a moment but then shuffled out of the room. Joaquin shut the double doors behind them with a loud thud.
Guillermo breathed. “Thank you.”
“Is there no drink in this place?” Lorenzo asked and looked around but came up empty.
“No, it’s fine. I need my mind sharp,” Guillermo said. He turned outside to the view from the window.
Joaquin puffed his chest. “I taught you well.”
Guillermo stared at the press outside. They waited in siege, their vans and cameras and microphones on hand, ambushing every official-looking person they could find for a scrap of new information.
But there was no real news at the moment, other than the simple fact that we were getting visited by royalty in a couple of hours.
The alien delegation had arranged nothing. Normally, a princess’ tour would be an orchestrated thing, decided in advance, everything planned and proper. Guillermo knew about those, he had done a few of those before with Infanta Sofía of Spain, the second daughter in line of succession for the Spanish throne.
“Come on, Guillermo, it’s nothing you’ve never done before. She can’t be harder to deal with than Her Royal Highness Infanta Sofía,” Joaquin tried to comfort him.
Guillermo bit his lip. “Don’t remind me.”
Joaquin laughed.
“What?” Lorenzo perked up. “Is there something juicy about the princess?”
“Excuse us, but a significant part of our role is to be discreet about these things,” the older man apologised.
“Don’t let your imagination run wild. It was nothing, just a young spoiled girl acting out. If it happened in an average family you wouldn’t even bat an eyelid,” Guillermo waved away.
“But her handler took the fall for that, as he should,” Joaquin said proudly.
“You guys have such a weird job.” Lorenzo looked from one man to the other.
“We do,” Guillermo said firmly. “That’s why I need you to get me up to speed. What else do I need to know?” He pulled his sleeves to straighten the wrinkles. They were yellow and blue.
“Wait, wasn’t this yellow and green just now?”
“Yeah… They must have changed the national colours again,” Lorenzo said and sat down. He preferred a specific sofa that had intricate patterns on it. Guillermo was certain that the scientist found them fascinating. The man found everything fascinating.
“Come on! She can’t be that fickle, can she?”
Lorenzo nodded. “She sure can. To say that the princess’ fickleness is legendary would be an understatement.”
Guillermo turned to his mentor. “What have you gotten me into, profesor?”
“It’s nothing you can’t handle.” Joaquin sliced the air with his hand.
“Right. Okay, Lorenzo, let’s cram.” He pulled the sofa across him and sat down. “Hit me with everything I need to know.”
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