"How very Ironic, sergeant," Bey said in his educated permutation of a maddeningly-unplaceable middle-eastern accent, grinning a particularly smug, evil grin. "now that you save the drop upon us, as you would no doubt say, what do you do? You cannot mean to shoot me, surely. I know where the dagger is, and without it you cannot control the hordes." There was something off about that argument, but for the life of him, Rourke couldn't figure out what it might be. "So very talented you are, sergeant, yet so very unobservant."
There was in Rourke a slight inconsistency, or perhaps a lack of connection, between his common sense and his native intelligence. He thought, like most people, on several levels at once, concurrently -- but the individual connections between levels did not always fire as perhaps would have been most beneficial. Fior example, he knew, on one level, that he had said all of teh necessary words; the Service's memorization and recital drills ha dmade sure of that. On another level, he knew that the words were supposed to have an effect, and on still another level, the general feeling in the air, as well as his senses of smell and hearing told him that the incantation had been wildly successful. But the problem of the dagger, the fact that everyone was looking up at something that he dared not drag his attention from Bey to see, and his orders impaired his immediate realization of those facts.
Until a corporal in teh Uniform of Treadstone's private security army skidded to a stop a few yards away after dashing in through teh shattered doorway, and panted, "Beg...Pardon... Lord Presi *cough* President, but the-the-the Hordes, they have...they have... well, the oldest have crumbled, and the newly turned have reverted to their humanity... uh, sir." Bey turned away from Rourke, and Rourle rolled his eyes in utter frustration -- and his eyes froze upion the sight of the very dagger he sought, embedded in the ceiling twenty or so feet directly overhead.
SEIZE THEM! Bey thundered, ever one to do the unexpected, THEY HAVE NOT THE DAGGER! SEIZE THEM!!!
AS the guards began to close in, Rourke cursed sulphurously yet again, and planted two slugs in Bey's head.
"You wanna kill something, Mister Redburn? well, HAVE AT IT!"