Penny #29
Title: “Changing Course”
Author/Artist: Scriptator
Fandom: Concarnadine (original)
Rating: Probably PG
Prompt: - “Organisation”
Warnings:
Disclaimer: Everyone in here is an Original Character. Please ask before borrowing.
“Hallie, Nanesha - I’d like you to meet Emma Standless. Emma will be joining us … joining you … from next Monday. Well, next Monday, formally, but in fact she’ll be here from now on, to learn the ropes.
“Emma, meet Hallie and Nanesha. They’re good sorts and they’ll teach you everything that you need to know.
“Now, all of this is by way of saying that I’m going to be here a little less - like maybe just a couple of days a week. Adrian knows about this, so he won’t be making any waves, but there are things going on in my life which mean I need some spare time to deal with them.”
“So, can we ask for details ?” Hallie Indiset asked.
Penny Mortenson nodded: “It’s only fair in case any of it comes to call while I’m not here. You both know about the incident with the TV people - “ (Penny knew that Hallie had discussed it with Nanesha, to explain how things had got to be the way they were) “ - and this is some more of the same: people wanting to get to Adrian through me.”
“You’re going to work with that magician again, aren’t you ?” Hallie challenged.
Penny left her head droop slightly. “I am; yes.”
“I knew it !” Triumphance.
“But only because he’s involved, too.”
Emma looked a little non-plussed, so Penny let the others explain it all to her, while she got on with sorting out her desk, and synchronising her PDA with the office system, so that the various things she had jotted down got backed-up on the system drives and she was updated with new contact numbers and outstanding queries.
She had just left the offices and was walking to the front doors of the Frenchsam, when she heard her name being called, and turned, to see Dee Rosenorth bearing down on her.
“Miss Mortenson, isn’t it ? I’ve been trying to get a word with you for days - “
“I’m sorry,” Penny said: “I’m afraid I have an urgent appoint- “
“It’s just a few questions. To begin with, do you have any comment about the abandoning of the Cityscope interview ? You were scheduled to be on the programme, weren’t you ? But the broadcast was cancelled - in favour of a reshowing of a report on Eastern European farming developments … “
“I’m sorry,” Penny said, trying to get past, “I can’t comment about any of that - I have no idea how the programme works - “
“But you were interviewed, weren’t you ?” Penny felt the flames ignite in her mind’s eye. Desperately she pressed them back: something told her that bursting into flames in public might not be the most unobtrusive move to make.
“I - it never happened,” she said. “I mean, I was there, but the interview never took place.”
“Do you know why ?” Dee Rosenorth pressed: “And do you have any comment about a ruckus at the International Business Library a day or two ago ?”
Penny drew a deep breath.
“I’m not sure who you work for, but I am sure that there are more interesting things for whoever reads your work than the mundane existence of an office-girl. Now - “ and she extended her hand, lodging it firmly on Dee Rosenorth’s shoulder, cupping the joint gently, and thrust slowly but firmly, “ - if you will excuse me, I have work to get on with.”
She got past, out onto the pavement, and then cut through the Norsex Mercantile Bank, and out onto Judas Alley, and then walked down to Solme Mens’ offices. She explained to the little white-haired man that she might not be coming in as often. Solme’s answer was to give her a short list of addresses: a tobacconist off Holborn, a flower shop at Covent Garden, a private hotel in Mayfair, and a stationer’s in the Cut, below Waterloo Station. She could leave a message at any of them, and Solme would have it within the hour, and do the trades she wanted.
“Mr LeGrange wishes for me to continue to process whatever orders you may have,” Solme emphasised: “And I would not want you … inconvenienced.”
“What it amounts to,” Concarnadine the conjurer explained, “is that we’re going to use precisely the tactics that your own boss, Mr. LeGrange, is using to try to catch people using you to spy on him: we’re going to use you as a lure. I’m sorry, Penny, but it makes sense. You’ll be the obvious target-of-attention; Elizabeth, Urtu-Ab, and I will be on the look-out for whoever is watching you.”
“Meanwhile, I’m a sitting duck.” It wasn’t till she’d said the words that Penny had the sudden image in her head of Concarnadine doing stage magic with ducks rather than rabbits or pigeons, and thus of herself as a mere prop.
“Not precisely,” Elizabeth Stellamer, who was Concarnadine’s companion, collaborator, and stage assistant as well as being a practitioner and performer of magic in her own right, replied. “I have one or two items to offer to bolster your psychic defences, Borin has some things he would like you to field-test, to do with physical danger … “ She paused, then went on, “And Rayner Mortimer may be able to help you, once we can identify the exact danger.”
“So I’m going to be walking round London, so that you can find out if I am in danger, and my fall-back is an elderly man who lives in the Home Counties, best part of an hour away by train ?” Penny regretted the snap as soon as she had finished it, but she had needed to let off steam in some way, and relieve her tensions.
“ ’ere,” a voice said from beside her elbow. It was, unsurprisingly, Borin, the dwarf and Concarnadine’s original stage assistant (who, with Elizabeth’s increasingly independent schedule, was once more at the forefront of the theatrical act). He was also the team’s technician and engineer. And gourmet - he passed her a wooden jack of something which smelled deeply beery, but proved to be in fact both heavily fruity and also astonishingly refreshing.
“Now, th’ thing is, we need t’know what it is abaht you that interests them - ‘ooever they are, which is another matter.”
Penny might have been sceptical if it had been one of the others, but Borin, to her knowledge, simply didn’t employ subterfuge. If he said that things needed to be done …
Penny squeezed out a smile, and turned back to Concarnadine.
“All right,” she said: “Just what is it that I’m supposed to be doing ?”
“Just carry on with your usual life - maybe try going to a few new places, to see if anyone follows you there - and keep in touch with us.”
“By waiting for your Sphinx to look in on me, you mean ?”
“That, and we can try some other methods.”
Author/Artist: Scriptator
Fandom: Concarnadine (original)
Rating: Probably PG
Prompt: - “Organisation”
Warnings:
Disclaimer: Everyone in here is an Original Character. Please ask before borrowing.
“Hallie, Nanesha - I’d like you to meet Emma Standless. Emma will be joining us … joining you … from next Monday. Well, next Monday, formally, but in fact she’ll be here from now on, to learn the ropes.
“Emma, meet Hallie and Nanesha. They’re good sorts and they’ll teach you everything that you need to know.
“Now, all of this is by way of saying that I’m going to be here a little less - like maybe just a couple of days a week. Adrian knows about this, so he won’t be making any waves, but there are things going on in my life which mean I need some spare time to deal with them.”
“So, can we ask for details ?” Hallie Indiset asked.
Penny Mortenson nodded: “It’s only fair in case any of it comes to call while I’m not here. You both know about the incident with the TV people - “ (Penny knew that Hallie had discussed it with Nanesha, to explain how things had got to be the way they were) “ - and this is some more of the same: people wanting to get to Adrian through me.”
“You’re going to work with that magician again, aren’t you ?” Hallie challenged.
Penny left her head droop slightly. “I am; yes.”
“I knew it !” Triumphance.
“But only because he’s involved, too.”
Emma looked a little non-plussed, so Penny let the others explain it all to her, while she got on with sorting out her desk, and synchronising her PDA with the office system, so that the various things she had jotted down got backed-up on the system drives and she was updated with new contact numbers and outstanding queries.
She had just left the offices and was walking to the front doors of the Frenchsam, when she heard her name being called, and turned, to see Dee Rosenorth bearing down on her.
“Miss Mortenson, isn’t it ? I’ve been trying to get a word with you for days - “
“I’m sorry,” Penny said: “I’m afraid I have an urgent appoint- “
“It’s just a few questions. To begin with, do you have any comment about the abandoning of the Cityscope interview ? You were scheduled to be on the programme, weren’t you ? But the broadcast was cancelled - in favour of a reshowing of a report on Eastern European farming developments … “
“I’m sorry,” Penny said, trying to get past, “I can’t comment about any of that - I have no idea how the programme works - “
“But you were interviewed, weren’t you ?” Penny felt the flames ignite in her mind’s eye. Desperately she pressed them back: something told her that bursting into flames in public might not be the most unobtrusive move to make.
“I - it never happened,” she said. “I mean, I was there, but the interview never took place.”
“Do you know why ?” Dee Rosenorth pressed: “And do you have any comment about a ruckus at the International Business Library a day or two ago ?”
Penny drew a deep breath.
“I’m not sure who you work for, but I am sure that there are more interesting things for whoever reads your work than the mundane existence of an office-girl. Now - “ and she extended her hand, lodging it firmly on Dee Rosenorth’s shoulder, cupping the joint gently, and thrust slowly but firmly, “ - if you will excuse me, I have work to get on with.”
She got past, out onto the pavement, and then cut through the Norsex Mercantile Bank, and out onto Judas Alley, and then walked down to Solme Mens’ offices. She explained to the little white-haired man that she might not be coming in as often. Solme’s answer was to give her a short list of addresses: a tobacconist off Holborn, a flower shop at Covent Garden, a private hotel in Mayfair, and a stationer’s in the Cut, below Waterloo Station. She could leave a message at any of them, and Solme would have it within the hour, and do the trades she wanted.
“Mr LeGrange wishes for me to continue to process whatever orders you may have,” Solme emphasised: “And I would not want you … inconvenienced.”
“What it amounts to,” Concarnadine the conjurer explained, “is that we’re going to use precisely the tactics that your own boss, Mr. LeGrange, is using to try to catch people using you to spy on him: we’re going to use you as a lure. I’m sorry, Penny, but it makes sense. You’ll be the obvious target-of-attention; Elizabeth, Urtu-Ab, and I will be on the look-out for whoever is watching you.”
“Meanwhile, I’m a sitting duck.” It wasn’t till she’d said the words that Penny had the sudden image in her head of Concarnadine doing stage magic with ducks rather than rabbits or pigeons, and thus of herself as a mere prop.
“Not precisely,” Elizabeth Stellamer, who was Concarnadine’s companion, collaborator, and stage assistant as well as being a practitioner and performer of magic in her own right, replied. “I have one or two items to offer to bolster your psychic defences, Borin has some things he would like you to field-test, to do with physical danger … “ She paused, then went on, “And Rayner Mortimer may be able to help you, once we can identify the exact danger.”
“So I’m going to be walking round London, so that you can find out if I am in danger, and my fall-back is an elderly man who lives in the Home Counties, best part of an hour away by train ?” Penny regretted the snap as soon as she had finished it, but she had needed to let off steam in some way, and relieve her tensions.
“ ’ere,” a voice said from beside her elbow. It was, unsurprisingly, Borin, the dwarf and Concarnadine’s original stage assistant (who, with Elizabeth’s increasingly independent schedule, was once more at the forefront of the theatrical act). He was also the team’s technician and engineer. And gourmet - he passed her a wooden jack of something which smelled deeply beery, but proved to be in fact both heavily fruity and also astonishingly refreshing.
“Now, th’ thing is, we need t’know what it is abaht you that interests them - ‘ooever they are, which is another matter.”
Penny might have been sceptical if it had been one of the others, but Borin, to her knowledge, simply didn’t employ subterfuge. If he said that things needed to be done …
Penny squeezed out a smile, and turned back to Concarnadine.
“All right,” she said: “Just what is it that I’m supposed to be doing ?”
“Just carry on with your usual life - maybe try going to a few new places, to see if anyone follows you there - and keep in touch with us.”
“By waiting for your Sphinx to look in on me, you mean ?”
“That, and we can try some other methods.”