Penny #20
Title: “Diary #2”
Author/Artist: Scriptator
Fandom: Concarnadine (original)
Rating: Probably PG
Prompt:
Warnings: Involves things
Disclaimer: Everyone in here is an Original Character. Please ask before borrowing.
Saturday :: There were still two of the pressmen waiting outside the flat this morning, but Tiger and I used the doorway Elizabeth had provided last night, and went direct to Chelsea. When I phoned her, Hallie said that the ones at her house, whom her dad had threatened with the police, had gone away and hadn’t gone back … perhaps because her dad had also been somewhat explicit about his having been an amateur boxing champion in his youth.
“An’, of course, in the Army, I did a bit of bare-knuckle.”
“Isn’t that … well, illegal ?”
“Sar’nt-Major was keen on ’is lads knowing ’ow to ’andle they-selves.”
And I didn’t have any concerns about Nanesha - she lived with her family, and there were plenty of muscular young lads from the local community who’d go with her any time she needed to go out.
Anyway, Tiger and I went to Chelsea - where Borin had promised to “behave himself” - apparently he has a taste for … unusual … cuisine, like water-rat, stoat, and carrion crow. But he promised that, when he was “looking after” Tiger for me, there would be no question of roasting, marinating or even casual measuring-up.
As well as being a good way to dodge the press (courtesy, as I say, of a “gateway” Elizabeth gave me: a metal circle, which worked like the lino that had been at the Tube station - step on it and be transported), going to Chelsea meant I could keep up to date about the metal thing.
Except that it didn’t work that way.
“ ’s not ‘ere.”
“Well, where is it ?”
“The boss - Big C - took it: Mortimer rang first thing and Magic Man took it up t’ ‘im. And then Miss Elizabeth’s gone to the theatre t’ arrange tonight’s show.”
“All right. Look, there are things I could do to do - and if none of the others are here, it isn’t as though there’s anything for them to ask me to do, is there, Borin ? So, if you’ll look after Tiger like you promised, I’ll get the bus into Chelsea, do my doings, and then come back, and we can talk more then, all right ?”
What shopping I needed, as opposed to just fancied, I did - there turned out to be an excellent market tucked away beside a churchyard, and two (slightly expensive) grocer/delicatessens just down the road from there - and then had a light early lunch before I went back.
Tiger seemed happy to see me, Borin less so.
“Not good.”
“Anything in particular, Master Borin ? Tiger hasn’t been misbehaving, I hope. He’s all asleep at the moment, I see.”
“Nah - cat’s bin no trouble. No - I ’ad things t’do for the boss , but without ‘im ‘ere … “
It didn’t seem that there was anything I could do to help him, but suddenly he turned to me.
“D’ you ’ave a ’alf ’our ?”
“I didn’t have anything specific planned - and with Concarnadine and Elizabeth both away …”
We ended up in the basement, where Borin had a large and elaborate contraption partly erected. It was apparently something on which he had been working for some time, with a view to having it in the theatre act, and maybe even on one of Concarnadine’s occasional TV appearances.
He explained that it was designed for someone to get inside, whereupon they would appear to disappear. They would wave a hand out of an aperture, to show where they were, and then the apparatus would then be broken down, reducing the available space, but the hand would always reappear, even when what was left of the contraption appeared too small to hold anyone. My role, on this Saturday, was to test it out (a good thing I was wearing denims rather than a skirt). He got a small stepladder to help me into the first section, and showed me the set of painted arrows that would tell me where to go as each section was removed.
I ducked inside and started moving. The first few hand-holes were easy enough to get to, and as he proceeded I started to appreciate his cunning, because, although the space reduced, I was simply directed to take more and more horizontal positions, and more and more head on to the notional stage until I was sticking my hand through a hole right above my head, with my torso curled round a support pole.
“Very nice. Thank you.”
“My pleasure, I think. Magic without using magic.”
He nodded. “The complexity of the mechanism beats the eye. ’imself relies on sleight of hand. I go with ‘That isn’t possible’.”
I rang Sandy Miniver, who confirmed that things had quietened down, seeing that there was no sign of my having been at the flat, so, with a little regret at leaving Borin, I gathered Tiger and headed for the Tube and Gabaldeston Mews.
Sunday :: I spent the day at home, working on … well, work. It rained, so Tiger didn’t want to go out much, and we listened to music and had snacks. Towards mid-afternoon my PDA buzzed and I thought that it was something urgent, but when I looked as it was, was a message reminding me that I would be back at LeGrange Partners on Monday morning.
Still, it spurred me on to getting more done, so that I would be ready for Adrian and Eleanor. By tea-time I was, frankly, exhausted. I managed to get food down myself (and put some down for Tiger) and then collapsed onto the sofa with the TV on, and fell asleep. At some point I woke enough to stagger to my bed (finding Tiger already ensconced there and being too tired to throw him out), and finished the night there.
Monday :: Direct in to the (old) office. The first thing was to ring Hallie and make sure that she and Nanesha were okay and comfortable in Croydon. Then I went to talk to Eleanor Copressley about the sift criteria I had (or thought I had) identified, for catching out people trying to use the Study School to spy on LeGrange Partners. Miss Maltravers was there, too, covering the desk, while Eleanor and I used Adrian’s office, because he was in Malaga Street, talking to the French subsidiary of an Indo-China-based company who were wanting to develop a theme park outside Sunderland.
“So, what do you think, Penny ?”
“I’m not sure what to think, Mi - Eleanor. All this spying stuff … “
“We always knew that Adrian’s work would attract … attention.”
“But I’m just a researcher -- !”
“Not just, Penny: you are exceptionally good at it.”
And she gave me the opportunity to prove it, in a way, by switching me onto something which Ray Mathers’ best hadn’t found anything about: a supposed plan to create a new (or expanded) Atlantic port at Milford Haven, with the consequent heavy freight traffic serviced through an upgrade to the rail lines through the Thames Valley and on to South Wales. I switched the query round, to look not at the Milford Haven end, but at the rail developments and found a speculative developer who was trying to negotiate to buy and immediately resell the land that would be needed for the expanded lines.
“It’s probably just a shell game, Eleanor - certainly it’s nothing that Adrian wants to get involved in. Even if it was true, it would be a Government thing, not for private interests.”
“Thank you, Penny.”
Adrian got back mid-afternoon and I got some time with him at the end of the day, before he had to go to a dinner in West London being given by one of his clients. He was quite definite that the Augham McIlvinnie business would be dealt with by Georgia Bathanna and Max Levin, and that I wasn’t to worry about it at all.
“So, don’t worry about it at all. In fact, just take time as it comes, and make sure to keep up with Solme Mens.”
I nodded and went home.
And that would have been that, except that on the way home I got a text message, from Elizabeth.
It said: “That girl - Miss Rosenorth - was at the theatre, and she was asking questions about you. Take care.”
Author/Artist: Scriptator
Fandom: Concarnadine (original)
Rating: Probably PG
Prompt:
Warnings: Involves things
Disclaimer: Everyone in here is an Original Character. Please ask before borrowing.
Saturday :: There were still two of the pressmen waiting outside the flat this morning, but Tiger and I used the doorway Elizabeth had provided last night, and went direct to Chelsea. When I phoned her, Hallie said that the ones at her house, whom her dad had threatened with the police, had gone away and hadn’t gone back … perhaps because her dad had also been somewhat explicit about his having been an amateur boxing champion in his youth.
“An’, of course, in the Army, I did a bit of bare-knuckle.”
“Isn’t that … well, illegal ?”
“Sar’nt-Major was keen on ’is lads knowing ’ow to ’andle they-selves.”
And I didn’t have any concerns about Nanesha - she lived with her family, and there were plenty of muscular young lads from the local community who’d go with her any time she needed to go out.
Anyway, Tiger and I went to Chelsea - where Borin had promised to “behave himself” - apparently he has a taste for … unusual … cuisine, like water-rat, stoat, and carrion crow. But he promised that, when he was “looking after” Tiger for me, there would be no question of roasting, marinating or even casual measuring-up.
As well as being a good way to dodge the press (courtesy, as I say, of a “gateway” Elizabeth gave me: a metal circle, which worked like the lino that had been at the Tube station - step on it and be transported), going to Chelsea meant I could keep up to date about the metal thing.
Except that it didn’t work that way.
“ ’s not ‘ere.”
“Well, where is it ?”
“The boss - Big C - took it: Mortimer rang first thing and Magic Man took it up t’ ‘im. And then Miss Elizabeth’s gone to the theatre t’ arrange tonight’s show.”
“All right. Look, there are things I could do to do - and if none of the others are here, it isn’t as though there’s anything for them to ask me to do, is there, Borin ? So, if you’ll look after Tiger like you promised, I’ll get the bus into Chelsea, do my doings, and then come back, and we can talk more then, all right ?”
What shopping I needed, as opposed to just fancied, I did - there turned out to be an excellent market tucked away beside a churchyard, and two (slightly expensive) grocer/delicatessens just down the road from there - and then had a light early lunch before I went back.
Tiger seemed happy to see me, Borin less so.
“Not good.”
“Anything in particular, Master Borin ? Tiger hasn’t been misbehaving, I hope. He’s all asleep at the moment, I see.”
“Nah - cat’s bin no trouble. No - I ’ad things t’do for the boss , but without ‘im ‘ere … “
It didn’t seem that there was anything I could do to help him, but suddenly he turned to me.
“D’ you ’ave a ’alf ’our ?”
“I didn’t have anything specific planned - and with Concarnadine and Elizabeth both away …”
We ended up in the basement, where Borin had a large and elaborate contraption partly erected. It was apparently something on which he had been working for some time, with a view to having it in the theatre act, and maybe even on one of Concarnadine’s occasional TV appearances.
He explained that it was designed for someone to get inside, whereupon they would appear to disappear. They would wave a hand out of an aperture, to show where they were, and then the apparatus would then be broken down, reducing the available space, but the hand would always reappear, even when what was left of the contraption appeared too small to hold anyone. My role, on this Saturday, was to test it out (a good thing I was wearing denims rather than a skirt). He got a small stepladder to help me into the first section, and showed me the set of painted arrows that would tell me where to go as each section was removed.
I ducked inside and started moving. The first few hand-holes were easy enough to get to, and as he proceeded I started to appreciate his cunning, because, although the space reduced, I was simply directed to take more and more horizontal positions, and more and more head on to the notional stage until I was sticking my hand through a hole right above my head, with my torso curled round a support pole.
“Very nice. Thank you.”
“My pleasure, I think. Magic without using magic.”
He nodded. “The complexity of the mechanism beats the eye. ’imself relies on sleight of hand. I go with ‘That isn’t possible’.”
I rang Sandy Miniver, who confirmed that things had quietened down, seeing that there was no sign of my having been at the flat, so, with a little regret at leaving Borin, I gathered Tiger and headed for the Tube and Gabaldeston Mews.
Sunday :: I spent the day at home, working on … well, work. It rained, so Tiger didn’t want to go out much, and we listened to music and had snacks. Towards mid-afternoon my PDA buzzed and I thought that it was something urgent, but when I looked as it was, was a message reminding me that I would be back at LeGrange Partners on Monday morning.
Still, it spurred me on to getting more done, so that I would be ready for Adrian and Eleanor. By tea-time I was, frankly, exhausted. I managed to get food down myself (and put some down for Tiger) and then collapsed onto the sofa with the TV on, and fell asleep. At some point I woke enough to stagger to my bed (finding Tiger already ensconced there and being too tired to throw him out), and finished the night there.
Monday :: Direct in to the (old) office. The first thing was to ring Hallie and make sure that she and Nanesha were okay and comfortable in Croydon. Then I went to talk to Eleanor Copressley about the sift criteria I had (or thought I had) identified, for catching out people trying to use the Study School to spy on LeGrange Partners. Miss Maltravers was there, too, covering the desk, while Eleanor and I used Adrian’s office, because he was in Malaga Street, talking to the French subsidiary of an Indo-China-based company who were wanting to develop a theme park outside Sunderland.
“So, what do you think, Penny ?”
“I’m not sure what to think, Mi - Eleanor. All this spying stuff … “
“We always knew that Adrian’s work would attract … attention.”
“But I’m just a researcher -- !”
“Not just, Penny: you are exceptionally good at it.”
And she gave me the opportunity to prove it, in a way, by switching me onto something which Ray Mathers’ best hadn’t found anything about: a supposed plan to create a new (or expanded) Atlantic port at Milford Haven, with the consequent heavy freight traffic serviced through an upgrade to the rail lines through the Thames Valley and on to South Wales. I switched the query round, to look not at the Milford Haven end, but at the rail developments and found a speculative developer who was trying to negotiate to buy and immediately resell the land that would be needed for the expanded lines.
“It’s probably just a shell game, Eleanor - certainly it’s nothing that Adrian wants to get involved in. Even if it was true, it would be a Government thing, not for private interests.”
“Thank you, Penny.”
Adrian got back mid-afternoon and I got some time with him at the end of the day, before he had to go to a dinner in West London being given by one of his clients. He was quite definite that the Augham McIlvinnie business would be dealt with by Georgia Bathanna and Max Levin, and that I wasn’t to worry about it at all.
“So, don’t worry about it at all. In fact, just take time as it comes, and make sure to keep up with Solme Mens.”
I nodded and went home.
And that would have been that, except that on the way home I got a text message, from Elizabeth.
It said: “That girl - Miss Rosenorth - was at the theatre, and she was asking questions about you. Take care.”