Swamped

"Well, just now I was checking up on my squadmate's successful efforts to catch the Bogknight swimmer..."

You don't sound confident. Mostly because you're not really sure what actually happened there. Would have been nice to be able to talk to Crosswinds or Greeneye about it, but Razor's impatient enough already.

"What about before that, when I had to send men to the roost to look for you?"

"Oh. That."

You try to think about how to make this sound as good as possible.

"I heard a noise, went to investigate. After Claws left, I thought I saw something odd in one of the walls, so I took a closer look. Then, well, I think I saw the escaped Bogknight for just a moment, before getting struck in the head by a slicer. Knocked me out good."

"You were ambushed by the escapee?" Razor asks.

"Careless, I know. Shouldn't have checked alone. If I'd just had backup, everything would have been fine."

"Hmmph. If it had been me, I wouldn't need backup. I certainly wouldn't let the escapee slip away from right under my nose."

"Like Grey-maw did?" you ask. "Heard she was poking around there, but didn't find anything. Got to say, though, must have good instincts for checking the roost in the first place. I'm surprised a one-armed newmuck could get up that ladder."

You suspect it was actually Razor's idea. But he doesn't seem to flinch at the suggestion.

"Grey-maw's performance has been a bit disappointing lately," he says carefully. "Perhaps the pressure of the council watching is too much for her. A shame, really. But you seem to be holding up well under the same conditions."

This is exactly what Mudviper was talking about. If you didn't know better, you'd swear he was on your side.

"Aside from getting knocked out by an escapee, you mean?" you ask sarcastically.

"Actually, yes. I've heard quite a bit about what you've been doing today, and I have to say, it's impressive. You've made an effort to repair your past relationships with key officers, demonstrated effective leadership with your squad, took it on yourself to discipline a troublemaker, sounded the alarm on a problem nobody else had noticed, and now I find out you were directing an operation to capture the swimmer on top of that. Oh, and let's not forget identifying the desert fever. One moment of carelessness can't erase all of that."

You really don't feel comfortable with Razor bringing all that up. You feel like there's a catch to it.

"Maybe I'm just having a good day."

"Or maybe someone is giving you particularly good advice," he mused. "I should hope not; if you're going to make the Council, you need to be able to stand on your own two feet."

Well, the only thing there that wasn't your own idea was catching the swimmer. Maybe you ought to come clean on that; but you think the larger point he's trying to make is, he wants proof. That would explain why he was asking about your desert fever theory earlier; he wanted to make sure it was really yours.

Of course, you can't rule out the idea that he's looking for some kind of leverage on you.

What's the best way to respond here?