In Chapter 4 ("Paper Tigers") of MacLeod's _The Sky Road_,
one of the protagonists is at a cocktail party (shades of
Ayn Rand!) and observes the following:

She refilled her glass, with vodka this time, and
set out in a carefully casual ramble to where Reid
stood chatting to an awestruck gaggle of low-level
functionaries. Denis Gubanov and one of Reid's
greps circled unobtrusively, keeping a wary
distance from the group and from each other, each
at a Lagrange point of his own.

Now, I know just fine what a grep does at a command prompt,
or in a pipe, but I've never seen one at a cocktail party,
or any other kind of party. Is this some Scottish slang, or
what?

<http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?20935>

--
Michael F. Stemper
Psalm 82:3-4

On 2022-06-17, Michael F. Stemper <michael.stemper@gmail.com> wrote:
> In Chapter 4 ("Paper Tigers") of MacLeod's _The Sky Road_,
> one of the protagonists is at a cocktail party (shades of
> Ayn Rand!) and observes the following:
>
> She refilled her glass, with vodka this time, and
> set out in a carefully casual ramble to where Reid
> stood chatting to an awestruck gaggle of low-level
> functionaries. Denis Gubanov and one of Reid's
> greps circled unobtrusively, keeping a wary
> distance from the group and from each other, each
> at a Lagrange point of his own.
>
> Now, I know just fine what a grep does at a command prompt,
> or in a pipe, but I've never seen one at a cocktail party,
> or any other kind of party. Is this some Scottish slang, or
> what?

Earlier in that chapter:

The distinguished foreign guests included the Kazakhstani consul, the
head of the Western United States Interests Section, and David Reid,
who was wedged between a couple of Mutual Protection greps.

So, from context, they're hired bodyguards.

-dsr-

On 17/06/2022 15.26, -dsr- wrote:
> On 2022-06-17, Michael F. Stemper <michael.stemper@gmail.com> wrote:
>> In Chapter 4 ("Paper Tigers") of MacLeod's _The Sky Road_,

>> Now, I know just fine what a grep does at a command prompt,
>> or in a pipe, but I've never seen one at a cocktail party,
>> or any other kind of party. Is this some Scottish slang, or
>> what?
>
>
> Earlier in that chapter:
>
> The distinguished foreign guests included the Kazakhstani consul, the
> head of the Western United States Interests Section, and David Reid,
> who was wedged between a couple of Mutual Protection greps.
>
> So, from context, they're hired bodyguards.

Works for me. Now I wonder why I didn't notice the word there.

Thanks.

--
Michael F. Stemper
Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.
Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.