Penny #25
Title: “The Option Being Travelled”
Author/Artist: Scriptator
Fandom: Concarnadine (original)
Rating: Probably PG
Prompt:: #0nn “ ”
Warnings:
Disclaimer: Everyone in here is an Original Character. Please ask before borrowing.
“Miss Mortenson ? Welcome to Bruges.”
“Mr. Blenker, I presume ?”
“Please, call me Rudi. And I’m very pleased to meet you - you come with Mr. LeGrange’s highest recommendation, and I understand that you’re authorised to take decisions for him.”
Penny stifled a gasp, swallowed, and said “If that’s so, then you’re better informed than I am, Mr …. Rudi, that is.”
Then she swung her attaché case (a gift from Eleanor Copressley) forward and said “Shall we begin ?”
Rudmar Blenker’s office in Bruges looked out onto the Burg, which was a square with late-medieval buildings along the southern side.
“It’s extremely expensive, but it gives the right impression,” Blenker admitted. “We find that our … client-base … likes to think of us as more than usually prosperous, as it encourages them to invest as we recommend.”
Penny nodded, and took out the packet of papers.
“Yes - the Finahol proposal,” Blenker said: “An intriguing development of your principal’s work pattern.”
“I was told that we would be concentrating on legal issues,” Penny said. “Given that I have no legal qualifications, I will need to rely on you for most of our conclusions.”
Which, even to her, sounded like an invitation to take advantage. But was, at the same time, the practical truth.
Except that, more or less to her amazement, she started to understand what Blenker was telling her, started to perceive patterns and principles (and paradigms) in the legal framework. Even though Penny knew she had no specific knowledge about Euro-law (and all of the sources she had made reference to had indicated that it was of labyrinthine complexity), she found that parts of it started to cohere in her mind, and that she could almost guess what Rudmer Blenker was going to say about some situations. It was strange but Penny couldn’t think of any logical reason for it to be happening.
They did have a break for lunch (an omelette and a plate of chips - the Belgians, or the Brugois, seemed fanatical about chips, with mayonnaise for some reason) but otherwise they worked solidly through the day. At the end of the day, Blenker suddenly apologised.
“I was going to be taking you out for a meal, to introduce you properly to our lovely city. And then my wife rang tor remind me that it is our son’s school play tonight. So, I hope that you will understand why I cannot. But I have arranged instead for Laura, who works in our HR department, on international liaison issues - and I would be grateful if you would accept this, because it will also allow Laura some practice in a … well, controlled … environment.”
Laura proved to be a pleasant brunette girl, dressed in a business suit under her vaguely-military-cut overcoat, who approached Penny with a hand outstretched and a smile on her face.
“You’re Penny ? Hi, I’m Laura. I thought that we would go to a fish restaurant - unless you would prefer something else.”
“I don’t know anything here,” Penny admitted. “So wherever you suggest will be fine.”
“All right - do you have a coat ? It can get a little - oh !”
Elizabeth had “loaned” Penny a coat a few weeks ago, when they had been at the Durbar and a sudden rainstorm had come on, and had refused to take it back “In case you need it suddenly”, so Penny had brought it with her. The odd thing was, it never seemed quite the same twice - it had a hood for rain, but seemed to “lose” it in drier weather, and Penny had noticed that the coat seemed to gain and lose padding according to the temperature.
She had a suspicion that the coat was, in fact, a longer-term test of the effects her resistance to magic had: it wasn’t magic being practised on her directly, and because the coat seemed only to change when she wasn’t “with” it, there wasn’t even any magical effect for her to observe. For Laura, it had become a smart, calf-length coat with a fur collar and cuffs.
From Blenker’s offices, they crossed the Burg, and entered a short tunnel through the stone-built hall-like building which dominated the southern side of the square. That brought them, to Penny’s slight confusion, to a canal. She had seen broad waterways when her taxi had taken her from railway station to hotel, but they had been round the outside of the city: this was in its heart.
“Come on,” Laura said, and led Penny over a small bridge to the far side. “This is the Fish-Market - the restaurant gets all its fish here, daily, fresh.” The restaurant itself proved to be just off the Market, in a low-ceilinged building with a slightly-depressed floor.
“I recommend the skate,” Laura said. “Possibly with parsley sauce.” Penny followed the suggestion and found it very palatable. Over their food, the two chatted, exchanging discreet stories of their working lives, and broadening into comparisons of life in their respective cities.
“This feels like London, only older,” Penny commented.
“I have only been to London once,” Laura admitted: “It was for a concert. I found it very … confusing, I think, is the English word.”
“Your English is very good,” Penny replied. “And f you fancy visiting again, let me know: I have a spare bedroom you could use, at my flat.”
“You are fortunate in having your own flat - as I said, I still live with my parents.”
“No boy-friend ?”
Laura smiled: “For some of us, there is no time for personal relationships; and for some there is no real impetus towards them. One day, perhaps - I will see what I feel when the time comes.”
The rest of the week went by in a very similar pattern - Rudmar Blenker briefing Penny (she sent reports each night back to Adrian, and read the replies each morning over her hotel breakfast), she refining the ‘Finahol’ document according to the Belgian’s advice, and then carefully comparing it, in her head, with the Interlaken-Hanover proposal, to, as it were, rub off the rough edges involved in the subterfuge, and see what lay beneath.
And still, she found, her memory and comprehension of the detail of the enterprise remained preternaturally clear. She was halfway to sleep on her fourth (and hope¬fully last) night when, from nowhere, she thought of the stone Elizabeth Stellamer had brought to her, which had been supposed to allow her more easily to enter a trance state, but which had turned out rather to be a memory enhancer for her.
But she hadn’t brought the stone with her, had she ? Surely it was still in the small metal box which Borin had made for it.
She had fallen asleep before she could resolve the matter in her mind, and she was busy the following morning, packing her bags, and it wasn’t till she was almost at the Burg that she realised that she had seen no sign of box or stone. At the office she was met by Laura and shown to a different room, where Rudmar Blenker was waiting.
“Penny - “ He held his hand out. Penny took it, but noticed that Blenker’s grip was firmer than usual. Then she realised that Laura had remained, and that three other people were entering the room.
“Penny - some new information has come to light overnight, and we were wondering if you had any comment to make ?”
Penny considered before she answered: “Mr. Blenker, perhaps if I knew what this ‘new information’ was, I could tell you whether I have anything useful to say.”
“You’re saying that you don’t know ?”
“Given that I don’t know what it is that I am or am not supposed to know, again, I can’t comment.”
“So, you’re refusing -- ?”
“Excuse me,” Penny said, with some slight heat: “Firstly, this is something no-one has had the decency to discuss with me, before allegations get thrown around, and secondly, has Mr. LeGrange been asked about whatever it is that concerns you ? You know, he being my boss and all that ?”
Getting no answer, she pulled out her PDA and switched it to phone mode.
“Miss Copressley - it’s Penny Mortenson, in Bruges. There appears to be a situation here, which isn’t being explained to me. Could you tell Mr. LeGrange that I recommend that he call Mr. Blenker’s office urgently - ” She glanced at the number of the telephone in the room, and read it over. “I am not certain that matters can be taken forward until he calls.” Then she closed the call, slipped the PDA into her pocket, sat at the table, and said “While we are waiting, I should like to discuss the option of an incorporation in Lichtenstein, as a means to get over the problems we were looking at yesterday … “
After about five minutes of (stilted) conversation, the phone rang and when one of Blenker’s suits answered it, it proved to be Adrian LeGrange (which didn’t surprise Penny - her PDA had silently vibrated just before the phone had rung).
Blenker took the call but almost at once replaced the handset and switched to speakerphone.
“Rudi - is there a problem ?” Adrian LeGrange asked, with blunt directness.
“Well - “ Blenker began, but another of the men there overleapt him: “We want to know about these rumours of you taking the firm over, sending this young woman to spy on us, ahead of you making a bid - “
“Leonard - enough !” Blenker’s voice was calm but firm: “I’m sorry, Adrian - you know how rumour spreads. But Miss Mortenson has impressed people with the … searching nature … of some of her queries, and concerns have arisen.”
“Penny ?”
“Yes, si- - yes, Adrian ?” Penny decided to go all-out and emphasise her closeness to LeGrange. Eyes round the table opened, not least Laura’s.
“Penny - have I asked you to spy on anyone, ever ?”
“No, Adrian - in fact, I don’t know of you ever using spies.”
“She’s supposed to be doing ‘research’,” the same men said: “That’s commercial talk for spying.”
“No,” Penny said, a little incensed: “That is commercial talk for using your eyes and your mind to put facts together and find things out. Research is finding out things other people might prefer you didn’t know, but have no good reason for keeping private; spying is deliberately looking for the things people have a right to keep to themselves. If you like, give me your name and twenty minutes with a computer, and I’ll show you how much about yourself is already in the public domain.” For a second or two she felt the flames stir to life within herself, but seeing that she was in no physical danger, she found it easy to suppress the impulse.
“And the public domain is where I pay Penny to look,” Adrian’s voice confirmed. “Her trip to Bruges isn’t even that - she’s working on what Rudi is telling her.”
“And, frankly,” Penny added, “I’m not sure but that I have got as far as I can with these discussions. Today we’ve even had to move on to considering a Lichtenstein element.”
There were a few seconds silence.
“Adrian - “ Rudmar Blenker began, but Adrian LeGrange’s voice cut in: “Penny, if you’re sure that nothing more can be done, then you’d better come home. If you go back to your hotel and pack, I’ll have Eleanor move your return ticket up to an earlier train. Rudi, I’m sure you can see to Penny getting safely to the railway station.”
That seemed to end the matter - except that Penny noticed that Laura almost leapt to offer to take Penny back to the hotel. Rudi Blenker gave consent but Penny got a “wrong” vibe, and politely made her departure before Laura could extract herself from the feverish debate into which the room had descended once the call had been over.
And so it really was no surprise when Laura (granted, with a taxi) was at the hotel to take her to the station.
“Can you tell Mr. LeGrange that I had nothing to do with all that ?” she squeaked, as the taxi set off (Penny hadn’t felt hard-hearted enough to make her walk back). “And if there is anything that I can do to help … ?”
Penny swallowed: “I will certainly tell Mr. LeGrange, and, should an opportunity arise where your skills would be of use to us … “
She felt the sentence unfinished, and busied herself with her attaché case, and her PDA. By the time the taxi dropped her at the station (with Laura offering to bring her suitcase, to leave Penny’s hands clear), Eleanor Copressley had sent details of the changed Eurostar booking, and a booking reference for a seat on the Bruges-Brussels service.
“Thank you, Laura - I shan’t forget you.” Penny took the suitcase, and went through the ticket barrier, resolutely not looking back.
There were only 10 minutes before the train to Brussels arrived, and Penny had just about got her head round the fact that she was, effectively, on her own till she got to London, when there was a polite coughing at her shoulder.
It was Elizabeth, with a small hamper. “Urtu-Ab said you might need company, and this is your lunch, since the buffet on the ‘star tends to be a bit expensive. C wondered about gating you back direct, but I pointed out that your office would wonder why you hadn’t used the ticket. And, besides, you could do with some time for yourself. Oh, and I brought an MP3 player for you. I have to go back - we’re partway through sorting out some rather complicated calculations to do with the Tunnel of Death.
“And once you’re back and settled again, come up to the theatre - you know you’re always welcome !”
The train came in, Penny got aboard, and Elizabeth waved her off, and there was just the time till London, and the music on the player (which turned out to be some of her favourites, and some she had never heard before but proved very pleasant).
Author/Artist: Scriptator
Fandom: Concarnadine (original)
Rating: Probably PG
Prompt:: #0nn “ ”
Warnings:
Disclaimer: Everyone in here is an Original Character. Please ask before borrowing.
“Miss Mortenson ? Welcome to Bruges.”
“Mr. Blenker, I presume ?”
“Please, call me Rudi. And I’m very pleased to meet you - you come with Mr. LeGrange’s highest recommendation, and I understand that you’re authorised to take decisions for him.”
Penny stifled a gasp, swallowed, and said “If that’s so, then you’re better informed than I am, Mr …. Rudi, that is.”
Then she swung her attaché case (a gift from Eleanor Copressley) forward and said “Shall we begin ?”
Rudmar Blenker’s office in Bruges looked out onto the Burg, which was a square with late-medieval buildings along the southern side.
“It’s extremely expensive, but it gives the right impression,” Blenker admitted. “We find that our … client-base … likes to think of us as more than usually prosperous, as it encourages them to invest as we recommend.”
Penny nodded, and took out the packet of papers.
“Yes - the Finahol proposal,” Blenker said: “An intriguing development of your principal’s work pattern.”
“I was told that we would be concentrating on legal issues,” Penny said. “Given that I have no legal qualifications, I will need to rely on you for most of our conclusions.”
Which, even to her, sounded like an invitation to take advantage. But was, at the same time, the practical truth.
Except that, more or less to her amazement, she started to understand what Blenker was telling her, started to perceive patterns and principles (and paradigms) in the legal framework. Even though Penny knew she had no specific knowledge about Euro-law (and all of the sources she had made reference to had indicated that it was of labyrinthine complexity), she found that parts of it started to cohere in her mind, and that she could almost guess what Rudmer Blenker was going to say about some situations. It was strange but Penny couldn’t think of any logical reason for it to be happening.
They did have a break for lunch (an omelette and a plate of chips - the Belgians, or the Brugois, seemed fanatical about chips, with mayonnaise for some reason) but otherwise they worked solidly through the day. At the end of the day, Blenker suddenly apologised.
“I was going to be taking you out for a meal, to introduce you properly to our lovely city. And then my wife rang tor remind me that it is our son’s school play tonight. So, I hope that you will understand why I cannot. But I have arranged instead for Laura, who works in our HR department, on international liaison issues - and I would be grateful if you would accept this, because it will also allow Laura some practice in a … well, controlled … environment.”
Laura proved to be a pleasant brunette girl, dressed in a business suit under her vaguely-military-cut overcoat, who approached Penny with a hand outstretched and a smile on her face.
“You’re Penny ? Hi, I’m Laura. I thought that we would go to a fish restaurant - unless you would prefer something else.”
“I don’t know anything here,” Penny admitted. “So wherever you suggest will be fine.”
“All right - do you have a coat ? It can get a little - oh !”
Elizabeth had “loaned” Penny a coat a few weeks ago, when they had been at the Durbar and a sudden rainstorm had come on, and had refused to take it back “In case you need it suddenly”, so Penny had brought it with her. The odd thing was, it never seemed quite the same twice - it had a hood for rain, but seemed to “lose” it in drier weather, and Penny had noticed that the coat seemed to gain and lose padding according to the temperature.
She had a suspicion that the coat was, in fact, a longer-term test of the effects her resistance to magic had: it wasn’t magic being practised on her directly, and because the coat seemed only to change when she wasn’t “with” it, there wasn’t even any magical effect for her to observe. For Laura, it had become a smart, calf-length coat with a fur collar and cuffs.
From Blenker’s offices, they crossed the Burg, and entered a short tunnel through the stone-built hall-like building which dominated the southern side of the square. That brought them, to Penny’s slight confusion, to a canal. She had seen broad waterways when her taxi had taken her from railway station to hotel, but they had been round the outside of the city: this was in its heart.
“Come on,” Laura said, and led Penny over a small bridge to the far side. “This is the Fish-Market - the restaurant gets all its fish here, daily, fresh.” The restaurant itself proved to be just off the Market, in a low-ceilinged building with a slightly-depressed floor.
“I recommend the skate,” Laura said. “Possibly with parsley sauce.” Penny followed the suggestion and found it very palatable. Over their food, the two chatted, exchanging discreet stories of their working lives, and broadening into comparisons of life in their respective cities.
“This feels like London, only older,” Penny commented.
“I have only been to London once,” Laura admitted: “It was for a concert. I found it very … confusing, I think, is the English word.”
“Your English is very good,” Penny replied. “And f you fancy visiting again, let me know: I have a spare bedroom you could use, at my flat.”
“You are fortunate in having your own flat - as I said, I still live with my parents.”
“No boy-friend ?”
Laura smiled: “For some of us, there is no time for personal relationships; and for some there is no real impetus towards them. One day, perhaps - I will see what I feel when the time comes.”
The rest of the week went by in a very similar pattern - Rudmar Blenker briefing Penny (she sent reports each night back to Adrian, and read the replies each morning over her hotel breakfast), she refining the ‘Finahol’ document according to the Belgian’s advice, and then carefully comparing it, in her head, with the Interlaken-Hanover proposal, to, as it were, rub off the rough edges involved in the subterfuge, and see what lay beneath.
And still, she found, her memory and comprehension of the detail of the enterprise remained preternaturally clear. She was halfway to sleep on her fourth (and hope¬fully last) night when, from nowhere, she thought of the stone Elizabeth Stellamer had brought to her, which had been supposed to allow her more easily to enter a trance state, but which had turned out rather to be a memory enhancer for her.
But she hadn’t brought the stone with her, had she ? Surely it was still in the small metal box which Borin had made for it.
She had fallen asleep before she could resolve the matter in her mind, and she was busy the following morning, packing her bags, and it wasn’t till she was almost at the Burg that she realised that she had seen no sign of box or stone. At the office she was met by Laura and shown to a different room, where Rudmar Blenker was waiting.
“Penny - “ He held his hand out. Penny took it, but noticed that Blenker’s grip was firmer than usual. Then she realised that Laura had remained, and that three other people were entering the room.
“Penny - some new information has come to light overnight, and we were wondering if you had any comment to make ?”
Penny considered before she answered: “Mr. Blenker, perhaps if I knew what this ‘new information’ was, I could tell you whether I have anything useful to say.”
“You’re saying that you don’t know ?”
“Given that I don’t know what it is that I am or am not supposed to know, again, I can’t comment.”
“So, you’re refusing -- ?”
“Excuse me,” Penny said, with some slight heat: “Firstly, this is something no-one has had the decency to discuss with me, before allegations get thrown around, and secondly, has Mr. LeGrange been asked about whatever it is that concerns you ? You know, he being my boss and all that ?”
Getting no answer, she pulled out her PDA and switched it to phone mode.
“Miss Copressley - it’s Penny Mortenson, in Bruges. There appears to be a situation here, which isn’t being explained to me. Could you tell Mr. LeGrange that I recommend that he call Mr. Blenker’s office urgently - ” She glanced at the number of the telephone in the room, and read it over. “I am not certain that matters can be taken forward until he calls.” Then she closed the call, slipped the PDA into her pocket, sat at the table, and said “While we are waiting, I should like to discuss the option of an incorporation in Lichtenstein, as a means to get over the problems we were looking at yesterday … “
After about five minutes of (stilted) conversation, the phone rang and when one of Blenker’s suits answered it, it proved to be Adrian LeGrange (which didn’t surprise Penny - her PDA had silently vibrated just before the phone had rung).
Blenker took the call but almost at once replaced the handset and switched to speakerphone.
“Rudi - is there a problem ?” Adrian LeGrange asked, with blunt directness.
“Well - “ Blenker began, but another of the men there overleapt him: “We want to know about these rumours of you taking the firm over, sending this young woman to spy on us, ahead of you making a bid - “
“Leonard - enough !” Blenker’s voice was calm but firm: “I’m sorry, Adrian - you know how rumour spreads. But Miss Mortenson has impressed people with the … searching nature … of some of her queries, and concerns have arisen.”
“Penny ?”
“Yes, si- - yes, Adrian ?” Penny decided to go all-out and emphasise her closeness to LeGrange. Eyes round the table opened, not least Laura’s.
“Penny - have I asked you to spy on anyone, ever ?”
“No, Adrian - in fact, I don’t know of you ever using spies.”
“She’s supposed to be doing ‘research’,” the same men said: “That’s commercial talk for spying.”
“No,” Penny said, a little incensed: “That is commercial talk for using your eyes and your mind to put facts together and find things out. Research is finding out things other people might prefer you didn’t know, but have no good reason for keeping private; spying is deliberately looking for the things people have a right to keep to themselves. If you like, give me your name and twenty minutes with a computer, and I’ll show you how much about yourself is already in the public domain.” For a second or two she felt the flames stir to life within herself, but seeing that she was in no physical danger, she found it easy to suppress the impulse.
“And the public domain is where I pay Penny to look,” Adrian’s voice confirmed. “Her trip to Bruges isn’t even that - she’s working on what Rudi is telling her.”
“And, frankly,” Penny added, “I’m not sure but that I have got as far as I can with these discussions. Today we’ve even had to move on to considering a Lichtenstein element.”
There were a few seconds silence.
“Adrian - “ Rudmar Blenker began, but Adrian LeGrange’s voice cut in: “Penny, if you’re sure that nothing more can be done, then you’d better come home. If you go back to your hotel and pack, I’ll have Eleanor move your return ticket up to an earlier train. Rudi, I’m sure you can see to Penny getting safely to the railway station.”
That seemed to end the matter - except that Penny noticed that Laura almost leapt to offer to take Penny back to the hotel. Rudi Blenker gave consent but Penny got a “wrong” vibe, and politely made her departure before Laura could extract herself from the feverish debate into which the room had descended once the call had been over.
And so it really was no surprise when Laura (granted, with a taxi) was at the hotel to take her to the station.
“Can you tell Mr. LeGrange that I had nothing to do with all that ?” she squeaked, as the taxi set off (Penny hadn’t felt hard-hearted enough to make her walk back). “And if there is anything that I can do to help … ?”
Penny swallowed: “I will certainly tell Mr. LeGrange, and, should an opportunity arise where your skills would be of use to us … “
She felt the sentence unfinished, and busied herself with her attaché case, and her PDA. By the time the taxi dropped her at the station (with Laura offering to bring her suitcase, to leave Penny’s hands clear), Eleanor Copressley had sent details of the changed Eurostar booking, and a booking reference for a seat on the Bruges-Brussels service.
“Thank you, Laura - I shan’t forget you.” Penny took the suitcase, and went through the ticket barrier, resolutely not looking back.
There were only 10 minutes before the train to Brussels arrived, and Penny had just about got her head round the fact that she was, effectively, on her own till she got to London, when there was a polite coughing at her shoulder.
It was Elizabeth, with a small hamper. “Urtu-Ab said you might need company, and this is your lunch, since the buffet on the ‘star tends to be a bit expensive. C wondered about gating you back direct, but I pointed out that your office would wonder why you hadn’t used the ticket. And, besides, you could do with some time for yourself. Oh, and I brought an MP3 player for you. I have to go back - we’re partway through sorting out some rather complicated calculations to do with the Tunnel of Death.
“And once you’re back and settled again, come up to the theatre - you know you’re always welcome !”
The train came in, Penny got aboard, and Elizabeth waved her off, and there was just the time till London, and the music on the player (which turned out to be some of her favourites, and some she had never heard before but proved very pleasant).